


Kiss it Better

by ladygray99



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Cross-Posted on Tumblr, Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-05
Updated: 2009-12-05
Packaged: 2017-10-04 04:28:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,209
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25965
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladygray99/pseuds/ladygray99
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There's one thing Xander can do that is special.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Kiss it Better

Giles was trying to sleep. It should have been easy. He had scotch in his stomach, a warm body at his side, and only a handful of cares in the world. The thing that kept Giles in a horrid half awake state was his wrist. It wasn't broken but that was pure luck. There was a livid bruise on it and no matter how he lay it throbbed with every heartbeat. At some ungodly hour of the morning he finally managed to wedge it over his head between Xander and a pillow and drifted into sleep.

It was the slight tingle of magic on his body that woke him up. Giles smiled still half asleep, the magic, warm and soft, creeping up his arm. His arm. Giles' brain kicked into gear. He turned his head. Xander was on his knees lips pressed to the bruised arm his eyes shut tight in concentration. Giles yanked his arm away sending Xander sprawling in the process.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Giles sprang out of bed and grabbed his dressing gown, wrapping it around as a protective shield.

"Nothing, Giles I-"

"You were playing with magic. Stupid, stupid boy. You were playing with magic on me. How dare you?" Xander winced at the venom in Giles' voice.

"I was just-"

"You were just what? Meddling with forces you don't understand? Experimenting with powers beyond your control? You foolish-"

"It wasn't magic!" Xander shouted cutting of Giles tirade.

"Really?" The sarcasm was thick in the air. "Then pray tell what was it?"

"I was just giving it a kiss to make it better." Xander mumbled his eyes glued firmly to the floor.

"You were what?" Xander lifted his head and locked eyes with Giles.

"A kiss to make it better." Giles looked at the earnest expression on the young mans face.

"That is the most foolish thing I have ever heard."

"Yeah, well, look at your arm. It bloody works." A small part of Giles thought that Xander had been spending too much time with Spike if he's started using bloody as a cuss word. Giles pushed up the sleeve of his dressing gown. The bruise had reduced by half and Giles had to admit the pain was a fraction of what it had been.

Giles sat back down on the bed. He flexed his wrist and wiggled his fingers.

"What did you do Xander?" He asked in what he hoped was a calm and rational voice. Xander shrugged.

"I don't know. It's just something I can do. How do you think I survived all those nights on patrol? I don't exactly have slayer healing but some things I can make better." Giles looked at him in the dim light.

"You can just make things better?"

"Yes."

"Since when?" Xander hung his head. He didn't want to talk about it. He hadn't wanted Giles to know. He'd just wanted his lover out of pain.

"When I was six Willow saw some bruises after I fell." Giles internally winced at how easily that lie still slipped from between Xander's lips. "She said she'd kiss them and make them better and it worked. I think Willow had a bit of magic even then."

"Yes indeed." Giles was aware that children possessed a lot of magic as long as they still believed in it.

"Later on Willow fell off the swings and scraped her knee. I kissed it better through the band aid and she said it stopped hurting."

Giles contemplated Xander for a long time. He could hear the bedside clock tick the seconds away.

"That's all the magic you can do?" Xander nodded.

"And all I've ever done. I usually just do it on myself. Put a hand or lips where it hurts and thing really hard about Willow kissing it better." Giles raised an eyebrow.

"She doesn't kiss it better for you anymore?"

"Once you turn ten you don't ask girls to kiss you anymore. Even if they're your best friend."

"I see."

"It works better if I do it on other people though. That's why…" Xander trailed off with a vague gesture.

"You could have told me." Xander shrugged.

"I've never told anyone. Even Willow and I never talked about it. We just fixed each other."

"When you fell?" Xander collapsed in on himself. There were things that had never been discussed between the two of them. This was one of them, Xander's less than stellar home life as a child.

After several minutes Xander took a deep breath, the façade of himself once again firmly in place. Giles knew that one day they would have to deal with that but this wasn't the night.

"Giles let me see your arm."

"Xander this is hardly-"

"Your arm." There was a sternness he seldom heard in the young man's voice. He held out his arm. Xander got on his knees and carefully cradled the arm in his hands. With a deep breath he leaned forward and pressed his lips to the injury. Giles took a breath at the amount of magic that flowed into him. He knew what Xander was doing now even if Xander didn't. He was redirecting the flow of his own life force, concentrating it into one spot with orders to heal. Giles knew wizards and witches who trained for years to be able to do that. Most couldn't because they were too attached to their own life force. It was like opening an artery and saying _'here take all you need'._

When the pain was gone he gently pulled his arm away. He knew Xander would have drained himself without thinking. He could probably bring someone from the verge of death, nearly kill himself in the process, and be none the wiser for it. Giles quickly realized it was possibly more than CPR that brought Buffy back that night with the Master.

"Thank you Xander. It feels fine now." Giles put his hand to Xander's chest and fed back the excess to him. He tried to fill the returning energy with as much love and understanding as he could. It was possibly too much for Xander who began to cry. This had been one of the big secret of Xander's life and now it just one more thing he and Giles shared. Giles wrapped his arms around the young man and let him cry himself to sleep

~

The next morning the group gathered together at the Magic Shop going over the preceding night's battle. Willow, who had seen Giles take the hit and was worried, managed to corner him before the meeting.

"How's the arm Giles?"

"Just fine. Thank you, Willow."

"That was a pretty hard hit. I would have though it would have been broken or at least bruised."  
"Well I guess I got lucky." Willow squinted at him then a light went on. She leaned in close.

"You got Xander to kiss it and make it better." Giles actually felt himself blush though he wasn't sure why. "He was always really good at that. Be sure to kiss him back. That's the important bit." She gave a wicked little smile and wandered off. Giles made a mental note to kiss Xander back as often as possible.


End file.
